operations

Texas Transportation Commission has accepted a TxDOT recommendation that a new back office operations contract be awarded to Federal Signals Technologies (FSTech). Other contenders for the work were ACS (Affiliated Computer Services/Xerox), ETCC (Electronic Transactions Consultants Corp) and TransCore.

Daryl Fleming, Ramon Grijalva and Tom McDaniel who comprise the eTrans Group all have PhDs in engineering. But just as impressive they were heavily involved in the nitty-gritty of getting the first electronic toll systems to work during the late 1990s. We first met them back then in Toronto Canada when they were on the job at 407ETR on the world's first big all-electronic startup.

They've been at it here and there ever since.

Miami Dade Expressway have Faneuil doing the tail end of manual toll collection, as well as enforcement and contact center work in the move to all-electronic tolling. The recently awarded contracts for $11.1m go for three years to mid-2012.

Salahdin Yacoubi of some acclaim as a chief implementer of all-electronic toll systems first in Melbourne Australia at CityLink, more recently Santiago Chile is on the job market. His eight year contract term is up, he told us recently and he's looking for new opportunities. In Chile he was director of operations at Autopista Central (AC), seconded to work there during the startup by Skanska Infrastructure, a co-owner with Dragados of the AC concession.